Last Updated on November 9, 2023 by Fasting Planet
You’ve heard of water fasting and juice fasting, and you may have even tried these liquid diets yourself. One of your fellow fasting buddies told you about another liquid fast they recently did: bone broth fasting. What is this fast and is it beneficial?
Bone broth fasting entails drinking bone broth or stock in lieu of meals. By sipping the stock, you give your digestive system a break to repair and restore itself since you’re not eating inflammatory foods. You can also trigger autophagy through a bone broth diet.
If you want to learn more about bone broth fasting, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll talk more about what bone broth is, where it comes from, and why you’d want to consume it as part of a fast. We’ll also delve further into the benefits and some side effects you may experience.
Let’s begin!
What Is Bone Broth?
Before we get into bone broth fasting, let’s be clear on what bone broth even is. Also called stock, bone broth is a cooking liquid with a savory flavor that’s used as the base for sauces, stews, and soups.
To get the flavor of bone broth, you’d add in ingredients such as wine, vegetables, seafood, meat, and even animal bones. The bones are often chicken, beef, or fishbones. Connective tissue, cartilage, and bone barrow produce a unique flavor, especially the tissue. The collagen becomes gelatinous as it cooks.
When throwing meat into bone broth, this won’t be removed from the bone. Shoulder cuts and other meats with connective tissue work best for a stock. As for vegetables, if you mix in celery, carrots, and onions, this is known as a mirepoix. You can add the whole vegetable or only parts, including those you normally wouldn’t eat like the celery leaves and carrot skins.
Aromatics can be stirred in as well for a richer depth of flavor and aroma. Thyme, bay leaves, and parsley are the most common.
Then, with all the ingredients ready, the mix simmers for a time until the stock is done. Most bone broth has a distinctive pale brown/orangey hue.
Interestingly, bone broth has a history all over the world. In Southeast Asia, prawn stock is quite popular. As the name suggests, this stock uses prawns as the base, but primarily their shells. Master stock hails from China and includes flavors like garlic, ginger, sugar, soy sauce, poached meats, and aromatics. Over in Japan, dashi is a fish stock that utilizes katsuobushi or fish flakes. They’re mixed with kelp.
2013 was really the year for bone broth. It was then that the world realized its health potential and the stock began appearing on many health food trend lists. When Kaayla T. Daniel and Sally Fallon Morell published a book in 2014 called Nourishing Broth, the popularity of bone broth heightened even more.
What Are the Benefits of Bone Broth Fasting?
If you’re just catching on to bone broth now, you may wonder, why drink the stuff on a fast?
The amino acids, gelatin, collagen, and glutamine loaded into bone broth can help your body in many ways. Let’s explore these more now.
Gut Health Reset
When you consume bone broth in place of your meals, you’re giving your digestive system a much-needed break. No longer do you eat the kinds of inflammatory meals that impact the digestive system so much.
This time off allows the lining of your gut to reset itself. If you have a condition such as leaky gut, acid reflux, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, or IBS, this little break is especially important in maintaining gut health. Even those who don’t suffer from gut issues can have their digestive health affected by everyday factors like stress.
How does your gut begin its internal repairs? The collagen in bone broth can develop fresh tissue for the GI tract lining. This 2004 study from the journal Gut confirms that you can also fortify mucus membrane lining through consuming more bone broth. That can prevent the chemicals and food particles that naturally occur during digestion from chipping away at the GI lining, eventually leaking to your bloodstream from the gut.
Cleans out the Liver
Bone broth fasting may also benefit your liver. We mentioned before how the stock is full of antioxidants, but there’s one important antioxidant included for optimal liver health. That’s glutathione, a detoxifier. When combined with electrolytes, minerals, and acids that come from bone broth, such as acetic acid, the detoxification goes even further.
May Help with Cognition and Memory
Do you have a hard time remembering basic things in your day-to-day life? It’s easy enough to just peg yourself as forgetful, but missing out on a work deadline or a friend’s birthday is embarrassing and potentially damaging.
Like the amino acids from bone broth benefit the liver so much, they may be able to enhance your memory and cognition. Our brains rely on hormones and chemicals for clear thought and memory, both of which amino acids can transfer through the body more reliably. Your head could feel clearer and those memories more multiple.
Could Make It Easier to Sleep
Tossing and turning all night is never fun, especially if you have a long, busy day ahead of you tomorrow. For yet a third time, the amino acids in bone broth save the day. Glycine, an amino acid that’s used to produce glutathione, may make it easier to slip off into dreamland every night.
You could feel less anxiety and enjoy better-quality rest thanks to glycine. You’ll also be more refreshed when you wake up each morning.
May Be an Immunity Booster
We’ve talked in the past about how fasting can be a great way to restore and strengthen the immune system. This keeps you healthier from illnesses caused by bacteria and viruses.
Well, you can add another type of fast to that list, bone broth fasting. Our gut bacteria–which is the helpful kind–multiply when we consume stock regularly. These probiotics could be able to control inflammation, which regulates the immune response.
Could Maintain Muscle Mass
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, then you’re certainly familiar with the mechanics of fasting. When your body runs out of glucose from food, it begins burning mostly fat. Unfortunately, your muscle proteins may also be depleted during this time.
You should prioritize maintaining your muscle mass when fasting, and bone broth can assist you. The amino acids in the broth such as proline and glycine retain muscle protein tissue. This allows you to lose weight but not your muscles!
Healthier Skin
Everyone wants glowing, healthy-looking skin, but achieving it is a different story. Well, you know by now that bone broth contains collagen, which keeps your skin looking young, healthy, elastic, and supple. The more collagen you have, the less you have to worry about skin dehydration, sagging, fine lines, wrinkles, and other signs of aging,
We tend to lose collagen as we get older, but by consuming collagen long-term through bone broth fasting, it’s possible to almost turn back the hands of time.
You may even notice that your cellulite lessens. Cellulite appears on the body because the connective tissue there is broken. Collagen is in connective tissue, so when you ingest more collagen, your cellulite could disappear.
Autophagy
Entering a state of autophagy is ideal on an intermittent fast, as your body will now begin removing and recycling damaged cells. Autophagy has many health benefits tied to it, such as a reduced rate of disease development and a longer lifespan.
Even though you ingest some calories through bone broth fasting, you can still trigger autophagy on this type of fast.
Weight Loss
Speaking of calories, per cup of stock or 240 grams, you’re consuming about 31 calories. Here are the rest of the nutritional facts for that same serving of bone broth:
- 2 grams of total fat
- 1 grams of saturated fat
- 1 grams of monounsaturated fat
- 475 milligrams of sodium (19 percent of your daily recommended allowance)
- 444 milligrams of potassium (12 percent of your daily recommended allowance)
- 9 grams of carbohydrates
- 3 grams of sugar
- 7 grams of protein (9 percent of your daily recommended allowance)
- 1 percent of calcium
- 3 percent of iron
- 5 percent of vitamin B-6
- 4 percent of magnesium
You’re not overdoing it on the calories, fats, carbs, sugars, or sodium at all when you sip bone broth. If you drink bone broth purely as a meal replacement, that’s three cups a day, which would be a little over 90 calories. You can even double or triple that consumption and it wouldn’t be bad.
Remember, to lose weight, you have to consume fewer calories than you burn. That’s very much doable on a bone broth fast.
Should You Make Your Own Bone Broth or Buy It from the Store?
You’d like to try bone broth fasting. Should you plan a trip to the grocery store to pick up a container of broth or, even better, bouillon cubes? We’d say no. Store-bought stock tends to be loaded with more ingredients than you’ll want to consume on a fast.
For instance, the broth may have excessive amounts of salt or sugar to enhance the flavor. It also definitely includes preservatives to extend its shelf life.
Making your own bone broth isn’t only satisfying, but it puts all the power in your hands. You get to decide the exact ingredients that go into the stock. You’re going to drink the broth for days at a time, after all, so you might as well make sure you enjoy it.
If you have no idea where to start with making your own bone broth, here’s a recipe from the Minimalist Baker.
You’ll need these ingredients:
- Lemon, sliced
- Herbs or rosemary
- Black pepper, a pinch
- Sea salt, a pinch
- Apple cider vinegar (2 tablespoons)
- Filtered water (12 cups)
- Chicken bones
Using a Dutch oven or sizable pot, start by putting in your chicken bones. Next, add your herbs and fruit. Pour water over the mix until it’s adequately covered, then season with the pepper and salt. Your apple cider vinegar goes in next. The high acid content of the vinegar will cause collagen breakdown, which is what you want.
Boil the stock and, when it begins bubbling, turn it down to simmer. Put a lid on the oven or pot and let the broth cook for the next 10 to 12 hours. You can go even longer if necessary, but you want the mixture down to half or 1/3rd of its consistency. This reduction enhances the flavor.
When the stock is ready, use a sieve to get the bones and other solids out. Then, put the bone broth in a jar and enjoy it. You can freeze it for two months, giving you a great supply to use.
How to Prepare for a Bone Broth Fast
Using the recipe above or one of your own favorites, you’ll spend a lot of your pre-fasting time making bone broth. If you start with a broth fast that lasts three days, then you need at least nine jars of the stuff.
You may want to have even more ready than that in case you get hungry and need something to satiate you when on the fast. It’s okay to have some stock leftover too. As we said, you can freeze it for a few months and use it in other recipes you make between fasting periods.
Besides doing all that cooking, you also want to modify your diet going into a liquid fast. Start your preparations about a week out. To do so, gradually begin reducing your portion sizes for your three meals a day. Then, after a day or two of that, switch to consuming two meals a day. We recommend eating breakfast and dinner, skipping lunch so you can acclimate to a few hours of fasting in between meals.
With at least two days left before the fast, incorporate more and more liquids into your diet. From natural juices to smoothies and water, you want to be drinking only liquid as you ease into your fast. You can even consume some bone broth at this time to get a feel for it. Just don’t get sick of it yet.
How to Do a Bone Broth Fast
Your fasting period has begun. Here’s how a typical day may go.
If you start your fast when you wake up on the first day, then you’re surely going to be hungry. For breakfast, take some of the bone broth you made and put it in the microwave. Stir in turmeric, garlic, pepper, and salt. If you never go a morning without a hot cup of coffee, cayenne pepper will give you a non-caffeinated boost that’s quite similar.
When lunchtime rolls around, warm up more bone broth and repeat the process. Feel free to mix in different aromatics and seasonings so it feels like you’re ingesting a different meal. As the day goes on, sip water or herbal tea to keep up on your hydration. These drinks can also ward off hunger pangs.
When the day ends and it’s dinnertime, repeat the process for yet a third time. Get creative with what you add to the bone broth so it feels like yet a third meal period. Remember that you can drink the stock outside of breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
What Can You Eat After a Bone Broth Fast?
You got through your first bone broth fast, so congratulations! Whether your fast lasted 24 hours or 72 hours, your body is better off for you having done it.
Now it’s time to ease your way back into a more regular diet. The same advice we normally give for post-liquid fasting works here as well. You want to do what you did to prep for the bone broth fast, but in reverse. That means beginning with liquids like smoothies, fruit juices, and veggie juices.
You need to ingest calories often, every two to four hours. It’s okay if you don’t feel hungry for real food the first day after your fast and maybe even early into the next day. Before that day is over though, you want to ingest at least one solid meal. Keep quantities reasonably small.
Two days after you’re done bone broth fasting, you should be eating mostly normally. This would mean two to three meals a day in the usual quantities.
How Much Weight Can You Lose on a Bone Broth Fast?
Like any type of fast, the weight loss potential is there, but how much weight you’ll lose on a bone broth fast will differ from person to person. Your metabolism is a big indicator of how easily the pounds will slip right off.
What you do during the fast is important too. If you feel up to exercising, you can burn even more calories and potentially lose more weight during your fast. Should you remain mostly sedentary, then you only have the weight loss from the bone broth fast.
According to Healthline, dieting with bone broth has the potential for you to lose four inches from your body and drop 15 pounds in three weeks.
The blogger at Bessie Bakes went on a bone broth fast for 30 days in 2018. She had just had a baby and was looking to lose some weight. After a month, Bessie shed eight pounds through bone broth fasting. She didn’t exercise during this time, but just consumed the broth. Sometimes she ate other things like cheese, Paleo desserts, tacos, and dark chocolate.
She continued bone broth fasting for even longer after that, 120 days in all. She lost 20 pounds in that time. Now, Bessie didn’t spend every day eating nothing but bone broth. She would start then stop the fasting, but it seemed to work for her.
Those numbers aren’t guarantees, but they do show what could happen if you adhere to a bone broth fast.
Is Bone Broth Fasting Dangerous?
Since you’re still ingesting calories, bone broth fasting has fewer dangers than a dry fast, which is only recommended for experienced fasters. That said, there are some side effects you might want to look out for.
Most of these symptoms are common of any fast. Still, if you’re experiencing them to a concerning degree, we recommend you stop your bone broth fast and contact your doctor.
Exhaustion
Since you’re slicing your daily calories by more than half (maybe more like 80 or 90 percent), you can expect to feel tired when bone broth fasting. Remember, your body uses glucose for energy, and now you’re giving your body that glucose in much smaller quantities. You’ll be sleepy and fatigued for at least the first day or two of your fast until you adjust.
Dizziness
After physical activity especially, you could feel dizzy when fasting. Some people can’t handle exercising on a fast. If you’re one of them, then stop what you’re doing, sit down for a few minutes, and wait until the dizziness subsides. You might want to go the rest of your fast without exercising too.
If the dizziness persists for hours, then you need to break your fast. You may be feeling woozy due to insufficient calories.
Nausea
Nausea is another side effect that’s a little concerning. It could be the ingredients in the bone broth that have caused your upset stomach. Call your doctor, and if they say to stop the fast, then you should do so.
Weakness
A feeling of weakness goes hand in hand with fatigue on a fast. You may want to rest for a while to rebuild your strength. Avoid any kind of physical activity with heavy lifting in that time, be that using weights in your home gym or even carrying in grocery bags.
Conclusion
On a bone broth fast, you drink almost nothing but bone broth, or stock. The antioxidants in bone broth can repair your digestive system, and they may deliver many other perks as well. These include liver detoxification, younger-looking skin, better sleep, an improved memory, and retained muscle mass.
With the information in this guide, you can safely do your first bone broth fast to see how it benefits you. Best of luck!